Modeling a physical formation is useful in many applications. For example, modeling a geologic formation is useful in mapping or assessing a geologic asset such as an ore deposit. A model of a physical formation is used as a map when planning a mine, for example. A model of a physical formation may also be used to estimate the value of a resource contained within the formation.
The size of a physical formation that is to be modeled may vary widely. Typically, models consist of a plurality of finite elements known as blocks. A model of a geologic formation may have thousands, or even millions of blocks. A model having thousands or millions of blocks may be cumbersome in terms of processing and storage required to access and manipulate the model.
One way to reduce the computing power required to manipulate a block model is to reduce the number of blocks in the model. This may be accomplished by “re-blocking” the model to increase the size of each block, thereby decreasing the total number of blocks. For example, a block model having 1 000 000 blocks may be re-blocked such that each new block comprises 1000 old blocks. Each of the 1000 new blocks represents, in aggregate, the attributes of the blocks from which each is derived.
However, condensing a block model by reducing the number of blocks in the model causes resolution to be lost. Therefore, re-blocking has the unintended negative consequence of causing data loss in a block model.